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bethkatz Asked February 2020

Eye exam for hearing impaired 94 year old with dementia, who is in a wheelchair. How does that happen?

DadsGurl Feb 2020
My dad, who’s 90, is in a similar situation with acute hearing loss and dementia. We went to the optometrist and Dad was able to do all exams from his chair. We repeated instructions as needed and took it slow. He did well and was able to get a prescription and two pairs of glasses. Now our problem is Dad wears his shades indoors! I can live with that!!

bethkatz Feb 2020
These are all very good answers. I have to rethink the goals here, and put his conditions within those goals. Thank you very much!

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needtowashhair Feb 2020
What's the goal? To get a prescription for glasses or to check pressure for glaucoma? If it's that latter, a modern ophthalmologist can use a tonopen or a rebound tonometer. Not much patient cooperation needed for that.

freqflyer Feb 2020
bethkatz, with modern technology, an ophthalmologist office would have a computer that the elder would look into and the computer can compute what lenses are needed. Then for the rest of us, the eye doctor would set those lenses in that thingee that they use and to which they say "which is better, 1 or 2?". Usually in the end, the computer was pretty close on what was needed. Now the computer may or may not indicate if a person has double vision.

Guess this would be no different than taking in a very young child to have glasses.
needtowashhair Feb 2020
That requires the person to be willing to look into the machine. Both my mom and grandma are not willing.
AlvaDeer Feb 2020
Not certain I would have this done? To what end? Is there a problem you think needs addressing or is this routine? This isn't worth it at this point for a new pair of glasses and almost certainly any cataract surgeries are likely out of the question.
againx100 Feb 2020
Exactly what I was thinking. Basically, why go to this appointment? Does he still read? Is he having trouble getting around?
Geaton777 Feb 2020
Hi bethkatz, when I needed to find a dentist to work on my wheelchair bound MIL, I called around to different dentists. Also, not many wanted a Medicaid recipient. Besides the challenge of being examined in a wheelchair, the larger issue may be that your LO many not be able to accurately respond to the part where they are looking through the corrective lenses (1? or 2? 2 or 3? etc). The doc can look at the physical eye for any disease or issues but not sure vision can be gauged or corrected.

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